Kuwait supplied a 500,000-barrel cargo of its 48°API Kuwait Super Light (KSL) crude oil to the UAE’s Ruwais refining complex last month according to a market source. Adnoc is increasingly sourcing third party crudes to free up domestic volumes for export (MEES, 10 January), and this marks the first instance of Kuwaiti crude being purchased.
The late-2023 completion of the Crude Flexibility Project (CFP) upgrades to the 417,000 b/d Ruwais West refinery enabled it to run on heavier grades such as Adnoc’s Upper Zakum and Iraq’s Basrah Heavy rather than the lighter Murban crude. However, even prior to this, modest volumes of third-party light crudes and condensate such as KSL had been imported for Ruwais West and the neighboring 420,000 b/d Ruwais East. This has often been of Saudi Arabia’s Khuff condensate, a 1mn-barrel cargo of which was also supplied in December. (CONTINUED - 145 WORDS)
